NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile vs NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is in a different performance class entirely, decisively outperforming the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile in every shared benchmark. The RTX 5080 Mobile leads by a massive margin in compute workloads, while the A500 Mobile's only statistical advantage is its lower power draw and older, less demanding architecture.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data shows a complete sweep for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile across the two benchmark tests where both GPUs have recorded scores. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 5080 Mobile scores 166,986, which is a staggering 304.8% higher than the RTX A500 Mobile's score of 41,263. This represents a deltaPct of -75.3% from the perspective of the A500 Mobile, meaning the A500 Mobile delivers only about a quarter of the RTX 5080 Mobile's compute throughput in this API.

The results are even more lopsided in the Geekbench Vulkan test. The RTX 5080 Mobile posts 169,754 points, while the RTX A500 Mobile manages just 37,873 points. The performance gap here is 348.2% in favor of the newer GPU, with a deltaPct of -77.7% for the A500 Mobile. This indicates that the RTX 5080 Mobile's advantage is slightly larger in Vulkan than in OpenCL, suggesting better driver optimization or architectural efficiency in the newer Blackwell design.

The RTX 5080 Mobile also has a significantly higher average benchmark score of 38,349 across all its tested workloads, though this figure is pulled down by its lower DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 scores (314 and 171, respectively). In contrast, the RTX A500 Mobile's average benchmark score is 39,568, which is actually 3.2% higher than the RTX 5080 Mobile's average despite losing both head-to-head tests. This anomaly occurs because the A500 Mobile only has two benchmark scores, both of which are relatively strong, while the RTX 5080 Mobile's average includes several low DirectX legacy scores that drag its overall mean down.

Looking at the nearest rivals provides additional context. The RTX A500 Mobile sits at the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 39,568. Its closest competitor is the AMD Radeon Pro 575, which scores 39,555 (a 0.0% delta), making the A500 Mobile effectively tied with that older workstation card. The RTX 5080 Mobile, despite being at the 81st percentile, has an average score of 38,349, placing it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38,299) and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135). This is a curious statistical artifact, as the RTX 5080 Mobile's raw compute performance in OpenCL and Vulkan is vastly superior to all of these rivals, but its legacy DirectX scores pull its average down to near-parity.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile wins decisively in all modern compute and graphics workloads. In OpenCL, which is commonly used for general-purpose GPU computing, scientific simulations, and machine learning inference, the RTX 5080 Mobile's 166,986 score versus the A500 Mobile's 41,263 makes it the clear choice for any compute-heavy task. Its Vulkan score of 169,754 further cements its dominance in modern cross-platform graphics APIs, where it outperforms the A500 Mobile by more than 4.4 times.

The RTX A500 Mobile, by contrast, has no benchmark wins to claim. However, its only potential advantage lies outside raw performance: its 30W TDP is significantly lower than the RTX 5080 Mobile's 80W TDP. This makes the A500 Mobile potentially more suitable for ultra-thin, fanless, or power-constrained mobile workstations where battery life and thermal output are more critical than absolute performance. While the benchmark data does not directly measure power efficiency, the 2.67x difference in TDP suggests the A500 Mobile will generate far less heat and drain batteries slower during sustained loads. For users who only need basic 3D acceleration, legacy API support, or light compute tasks, the A500 Mobile's lower power envelope is its only practical edge.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is dramatically faster, scoring 166,986 compared to the RTX A500 Mobile's 41,263. This represents a 304.8% performance advantage for the RTX 5080 Mobile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in Vulkan performance?

A: The RTX 5080 Mobile wins by an even larger margin in Vulkan, scoring 169,754 versus 37,873 for the RTX A500 Mobile. The RTX 5080 Mobile is 348.2% faster in this API.

Q: Why does the RTX A500 Mobile have a higher average benchmark score than the RTX 5080 Mobile?

A: The A500 Mobile's average score is 39,568, which is 3.2% higher than the RTX 5080 Mobile's 38,349. This is because the A500 Mobile only has two benchmark results (both strong), while the RTX 5080 Mobile's average includes several low DirectX 9, 10, and 12 scores that reduce its overall mean.

Q: Which GPU has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The RTX A500 Mobile is at the 82nd percentile, while the RTX 5080 Mobile is at the 81st percentile. Despite the RTX 5080 Mobile's massive wins in OpenCL and Vulkan, its average score places it just one percentile below the A500 Mobile.

Q: What are the closest rivals for each GPU based on average score?

A: The RTX A500 Mobile's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39,555, 0.0% delta), while the RTX 5080 Mobile's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38,299, 0.1% delta). The RTX 5080 Mobile is also just 0.6% ahead of the RTX 4080 Mobile.

Q: Is there any benchmark where the RTX A500 Mobile wins?

A: No. In the two benchmarks where both GPUs have results (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), the RTX 5080 Mobile wins both. The A500 Mobile has zero head-to-head wins.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every specification. The RTX A500 Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s of bandwidth. The RTX 5080 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a 9.3x increase in memory capacity and a 9.3x increase in bandwidth.

The shading units differ enormously: the RTX 5080 Mobile has 7,680 shading units versus 2,048 on the A500 Mobile. Texture mapping units are 240 versus 64, and ROPs are 96 versus 32. The RT 5080 Mobile also has 60 ray tracing cores and 240 tensor cores, compared to 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores on the A500 Mobile.

The clock speeds are similar in boost terms (1,500 MHz for the RTX 5080 Mobile versus 1,537 MHz for the A500 Mobile), but the base clock is higher on the RTX 5080 Mobile at 975 MHz versus 832 MHz. The memory clock is faster on the RTX 5080 Mobile at 1,750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) versus 1,500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) on the A500 Mobile.

The bus interface also differs: the RTX 5080 Mobile uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the A500 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x8. The RTX 5080 Mobile has a 80W TDP versus 30W for the A500 Mobile. The production status is also different: the RTX 5080 Mobile is Active, while the RTX A500 Mobile is End-of-life.

Architecture Differences

The RTX A500 Mobile is built on the Ampere architecture, specifically the GA107S chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It has 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 43.5M per mm². The RTX 5080 Mobile uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 120.6M per mm².

This represents a 5.2x increase in transistor count and a 2.8x increase in die size, with the RTX 5080 Mobile packing nearly 2.8x more transistors per square millimeter. The RTX 5080 Mobile's FP32 compute is rated at 23.04 TFLOPS, compared to 6.296 TFLOPS for the A500 Mobile — a 3.7x difference. Both GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The RTX 5080 Mobile is part of the GeForce 50-series generation and was released on 2025-04-01, while the A500 Mobile is from the Ampere-MW (Ax000) generation and was released on 2022-03-21. The RTX 5080 Mobile's predecessor is the GeForce 40 Mobile, while the A500 Mobile's predecessor is the Quadro Turing-M. The A500 Mobile's successor is Ada-MW, while the RTX 5080 Mobile currently has no successor. The RTX 5080 Mobile also has higher pixel rate (144.0 GPixel/s versus 49.18 GPixel/s) and texture rate (360.0 GTexel/s versus 98.37 GTexel/s).

The Verdict

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile is the clear performance winner in every measurable benchmark. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 166,986 and Vulkan score of 169,754 are more than four times higher than the RTX A500 Mobile's scores of 41,263 and 37,873, respectively. For any user prioritizing raw compute performance, modern API support, or future-proofing, the RTX 5080 Mobile is the only logical choice from this data.

The RTX A500 Mobile, while losing all benchmark comparisons, still occupies a niche. Its 30W TDP is 62.5% lower than the RTX 5080 Mobile's 80W TDP, making it a potentially better fit for ultra-portable or passively cooled systems where power draw is the primary constraint. Its higher percentile ranking (82nd versus 81st) and higher average benchmark score (39,568 versus 38,349) are statistical artifacts of its limited test set, not evidence of real-world superiority.

The RTX 5080 Mobile's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 Mobile, is only 0.6% behind in average score, suggesting the 5080 Mobile's advantage over the previous generation is modest when averaged across all tests. However, in the modern compute tests where both GPUs are compared directly, the RTX 5080 Mobile is in a completely different league. Users who need a mobile workstation GPU for heavy 3D rendering, AI inference, or scientific computing should choose the RTX 5080 Mobile without hesitation. Users who need a low-power GPU for basic display output and minimal acceleration in a thin-and-light chassis might consider the RTX A500 Mobile, but they must accept that it offers roughly one-quarter of the compute performance.